An Introduction to Jarvan IV Support

"You're a madman, that's not a viable pick!"

"I don't see Jarvan support on my tier list!"

"report j4 for troll pls thx"

The words of the unbelievers. The beleaguered masses who complain about Master Yi being OP, who insist that AP Ezreal is God tier, who stand vigilant watch over the League of Legends metagame, seeing all and understanding nothing. The arrogant fools who dare to engage on you at level 3, only to give up a double kill with First Blood.

But most of all, the ones who think they can escape justice.

Hey there! Eleventh Biscuit here again, this time with Jarvan IV support! With excellent hard engages, natural tankiness, high amounts of flexible CC, and an armor-shredding ability, it's a wonder more people haven't taken the Demacian prince for a spin in botlane. Come along for the ride with me, and FREAK EVERYONE OUT WHEN YOU CATACLYSM THE ENEMY ADC JESUS HOLY CHRIST

Side note: the Matchups section is going to get exponentially bigger, approaching the levels of the Matchups section in my Lissandra guide. It was part of the huge draw to the guide, and I feel it's one of the most crucial (and helpful) aspects to understanding any champion in any role. So, worry not! There will be more. Lots more.

3/19/15 F R O N T P A G E B O I S. I'm glad the two guides I've put up so far have gotten to a lot of people, and a lot of people like them apparently! If you've got suggestions for future guides for me to write, please let me know in the comments or by PM. I've been wanting to put up a Cassiopeia guide for a while now, but I haven't finished any specific sections yet. Anyway, thanks for the views, and I'm glad I've been writing these thanks to you nerds!

4/22/15 I hate to say it, but Jarvan support is practically dead in the water now. Part of what made it so good was the bonus armor on E's passive, and Riot took that out to mitigate his reatarded jungling and toplane. I dunno how much more work I'll get done on this guide unless something else big comes through. Sorries :/

Why Jarvan Support? Pros and Cons

PROS

+extraordinary kit provides utilities of support and oomph of tanky initiator+bonus damage from passive eases minion executions with Relic Shield+low early mana costs let Jarvan use abilities more freely+armor shred on Q synergizes with ADCs+attack speed from E synergizes with ADCs+natural tankiness synergizes with my left gonad+versatile engages foster very aggressive laning phase+Cataclysm is one of the best things a ganking jungler could ask for+Vayne has hilarious synergy with Cataclsym+SERIOUSLY THOUGH, CATACLYSM

CONS

-kit is suited to offense more than defense; dedicated peeling is usually very risky-engages can put you far from your ADC/team-lacks damage without itemizing for it-really feels the hurt against BotRK users like Vayne-doesn’t work as well with ADCs who rely on magic damage (Corki, etc.)-Cataclysm is harder to use defensively-struggles against poke or disengage comps like Ezreal-Janna

Before The Battle: Runes, Masteries, and Summoners

RUNES

Marks: Armor, straight down the line. This is true for a lot of support, tanky or no, if for no other reason than because of the enemy ADC. It's particularly important for Jarvan IV because of his natural frontline-y nature, and armor Marks straight down the line will serve him well deep into the late-game. I would recommend Armor Penetration, as you would probably take for toplane Jarvan, but the ArPen doesn't extend to your ADC (the lane's real source of damage), rendering it effectively useless.

Seals: You'll be creating your pool of Seals from Armor, Health, and Scaling Health. You'll want some armor anyways, but the decision between Health and Scaling Health comes down to where you want your emphasis: early-game or late-game. Personally, I run 3 Seals of Armor and 6 Seals of Health because it synergizes with my selection of Quintessences, guaranteeing me at least 15 bonus armor (a free Cloth Armor, and a good number to aim for) and gives me enough health to better shrug off magic damage and true damage at all points in the game.

Glyphs: Magic Resist and Scaling Magic Resist. If you have the luxury of devoting multiple rune pages to it, I would keep one with 3 flat and 6 scaling MR (for most matchups) and another with all flat MR (agaisnt extremely damaging AP supports like Vel'Koz).

Quintessences: This is where your big choices come into play. You need a high amount of armor no matter what, so unless you're packing a lot of Seals of Armor, you'll likely want at least one Armor Quint. You can usually devote the rest of your Quintessence slots to flat health, with gives you a huge boost in tankiness for the early-game. However, depending on personal preference (and matchup), you may want to have two to three Quintessences of Movement Speed. This keeps you extremely mobile when it matters. I run one Quintessence of Armor and two of Health, opting out of movespeed for most matchups.

MASTERIES: 0/17/13

Okay, this gets in-depth and pretty wordy. Hold onto your hats.

Block: "Reduces incoming damage from champion basic attacks by 2." Just by existing in botlane, you want this Mastery. Even ADCs take it. With an enemy ADC trying to last-hit, a support harassing you, any potential jungle ganks, and the hard engages you are accustomed to as Jarvan, all that reduced damage will really add up over the course of a game.

Recovery: "+2 Health per 5 seconds." This cranks up your HP5 from 7 to 9, which is extremely useful as a tanky support. This means that, by sustaining for a little over a minute, you completely negate one autoattack or 4-5 minion attacks you took at level 1. That stuff matters big-time.

Enchanted Armor: "Increases bonus Armor and Magic Resistance by 5%." That number includes Runes and other Masteries. And, as a tank, that % increase gets pretty nuts during the late-game. Frozen Heart plus Randuin's Omen, usually worth 170 armor, cranks up to 178 literally for free (not even counting any other sources or armor, like the passive on your E). You can end up packing 200 armor ike it's nothing.

Unyielding: "Reduces all incoming damage from champions by 2." ...Yeah. Another great bonus that's super low on the defense Masteries tree. This, by the way, includes ongoing sources of damage like poison or red buff, and reduces the damage per tick.

Veteran Scars: "+36 Health." Another absolute necessity for tankiness, so much so than even squishies invest in this mastery and its spiritual successor, which is coming up next.

Juggernaut: "+3% maximum health." With the amount of early health you'll be packing from itemization, your health bar is going to get impressive pretty fast. Even the +400 health from Ruby Sightstone becomes +412, and those little numbers really add up once you pick up items like Randuin's Omen and Aegis of the Legion.

Oppression: "Reduces damage taken by 3% from enemies that have impaired movement (slows, snares, taunts, stuns, etc.)." Jarvan was built around his CC-heavy engages, and this is just one more tool in his arsenal to crush lane opponents. You attract huge aggro when you drop your banner and charge in, and making sure your opponents are slowed with W when you take this Mastery lets you brush off more and more damage for your ADC. An absolute necessity for you.

Swiftness: "Reduces the effectiveness of slow by 10%." Once you're in, you need to stay in. You don't need some Ashe telling you when you can and can't engage; you need to be ready to engage at all times, for all reasons. You shouldn't NOT take this Mastery, specially since many support rely on slows pre-6 (which is your golden age in lane).

Reinforced Armor: "Reduce damage taken by critical strikes by 10%." This Mastery is often overlooked in general, for lots of reasons. Most champions that get this far into the Masteries tree are more worried about their lane opponent than the late-game, and since few top-laners invest in crit chance, few top-laners invest in this Mastery. You, on the other hand, are dealing with an enemy ADC from the beginning of the game. You benefit from this Mastery as soon as they buy any crit chance whatsoever, which will probably be pretty early. There's something to be said for reducing crits from 200% to 180%; even Infinity Edge goes from 250% to 225%, which really wrecks a rushed IE.

And that's the end of the defense Masteries tree for us! On to-noob ur support go 0/9/21
...What?at least go 0/21/9 if ur tank noob
*revs chainsaw**silence*
K. Moving on to the utility tree.

Fleet of Foot: "+1.5% Movement Speed." This Mastery is why I feel comfortable not taking any Quintessences of Movement Speed, because I get one for free here. Movement Speed as a support is rarely a poor invesment anyways.

Meditation: "+1 Mana Regen per 5." This is actually the only "burn point," used just to get to the next shelf of Masteries. If you prefer, you can invest this into Scout instead for added trinket cast range.

Summoner's Insight: "Reduce the cooldown of Summoner Spells by 10%." Oh yeah, baby. Since Exhaust is such a crucial part of your usefulness to your ADC, as well as your personal playmaking ability, you want it available as much as you can have it. The reduced cooldown on Flash also isn't bad, but you really want this for Exhaust.supports take ignite now noob
*chainsaw*

Alchemist: "Increases the duration of potions and elixirs by 10%." Adding 1.5 seconds to your Biscuit of Total Rejuvenation means 15 more health and 2 more mana; never an unwelcome benefit, especially considering that you benefit so much from added sustain.

Culinary Master: "Health potions are upgraded into Biscuits that restore an additional 20 Health and 10 Mana instantly upon consumption." This, combined with Jarvan's low-cost abilities, means two important things. One, you should never have to buy mana potions. Two, SUSTAIN BAYBEE. Second verse same as the first, sustain is good for you. Puts hair on your chest, boy.

Greed: +1.5 gold every 10 seconds." Since you don't have room for any +gold Quintessences, investing in this Mastery helps mitigate your funding problems, whether you're ahead or behind.

Scavenger: "+1 gold each time an ally kills a nearby lane minion." Sayonara, season 3; you never have to steal precious farm from your ADC again, especially not with this little bonus. This works particularly well with hard-pushing ADCs, which Jarvan likes because of his highly aggressive nature in lane.

SUMMONERS

You unfortunately don't have any options here. Ghost is outclassed by Flash in terms of general mobility and play-making, and Ignite and Teleport mean you don't have room for Exhaust. (Spoiler alert: YOU HAVE ROOM FOR EXHAUST.)

Exhaust: You're a support: take Exhaust. Exhaust stops counter-engages, or starts them. It keeps slippery ADCs from running. It peels bruisers and other threats off of your carries at all times during the game. You'll take Exhaust, or I'll take you across my knee, boy.

Flash: The best Summoner Spell in League of Legends. Non-support Jarvan often takes Ghost, but you want Flash because of the nature of the lane you face. Ghost is for drawn-out chases (or retreats), for tanks and bruisers who want to get in and stay in on an opposing team. Your entire job is to get in, and therefore let everyone ELSE in. Flash is your better option.

Fit for a Prince: Arms and Armor, Mostly Armor

Face of the Mountain: This is the preferred support item path for Jarvan. You don’t need the mana regen from the other two options, since your early mana costs are fairly low, and you have plenty of engage and lockdown with your raw kit and a potential future Randuin’s Omen, reducing the need for the active effects of Frost Queen’s Claim or Talisman. Your passive also helps with last-hitting a little, which helps you work with hard-pushing ADCs like Kalista and Sivir.

Boots: This is actually a fairly easy decision. As the specific type of tank that you are, your options basically come down to Mercury’s Treads and Ninja Tabi. You’ll want the Tenacity from Merc Treads most of the time, only going for Ninja Tabi if 1.) the other team is almost all AD-based, or 2.) you’re severely behind and need to clear up inventory space for important builds. Both of those situations are fairly rare, but the option exists.

Sightstone: If you’re playing support and you don’t buy a Sightstone, you need professional help.

Randuin’s Omen: A fantastic item on lane/jungle Jarvan builds that continues to be fantastic for support Jarvan. It gives you your much-needed health and armor boosts in a way no other item can match, yet ANOTHER slow to drop when you’re in the midst of the enemy to keep them firmly stuck in place, and even an attack speed reduction to dampen any ADCs and bruisers that spare you a second glance. This is a mandatory buy in just about any match.

Locket of the Iron Solari: Locket and Randuin’s form the tanky item core for most matches. Somebody on your team needs to pick up Aegis, so it might as well be you. Centering the aura on yourself also just keeps piling up the boosts you emanate during your engages, since you already give off attack speed with your E, so this is more incentive for your team to follow you into battle and benefit from the active effect as well.
Tl;dr lead the charge.

Frozen Heart: This is the other item you’re likely to get that slams the coffin lid shut on champions dependent on their attack speed. Especially if you manage to get into the midst of the enemy, the combined weight of your AOE slows, the attack speed slow on Frozen Heart, and any CC you have left can seal a whole teamfight in seconds.

Spirit Visage/Banshee’s Veil: Both are viable alternatives to Locket, if someone else on the team is already building it, but Spirit Visage would be preferable in most cases. The health regen is good for dealing with a lot of poke damage, and Banshee’s Veil is really just reserved for poke nukes like Jayce or AP Nidalee.

Warmog’s Armor: As with Spirit Visage, this would be a build choice in response to a poke composition where sustaining through a tower siege is key. Since you can’t really plan for most sieges 2500 gold ahead, however, Warmog’s is generally a rare choice.

Frozen Mallet: Unconventional, and potentially effective, but it takes a seriously slippery team to warrant building it. You already have dramatic amounts of CC built into your kit and another slow from Randuin’s, so the continued slow with Frozen Mallet is probably unnecessary. Other than that, it’s a good item for getting a bunch of health and a little AD.

Zeke’s Herald: …Hmm. It’s a great idea on paper: it gives you health, CDR, and a little more offensive weight, and it means MOAR AURAS for your team. However, it’s often not a good choice: the CDR won’t be well-spent if you already have Face of the Mountain and Frozen Heart, for example, and the aura isn’t really that huge of a boost. Plus, if you want an offensive item, Black Cleaver is far and above a better choice. There are some rare matches where I was on an all-AD team (I mean REALLY all AD) and decided to get Zeke’s Herald, but just know that it’s a very situational benefit.

Black Cleaver: Speak of the devil, and he shall appear… and armor-shred your whole team. Seriously. If you decide your team doesn’t need any more tankiness (i.e. you already have a Nasus, Amumu, or a similar supertank), Black Cleaver makes for a phenomenal item during the late-game. It helps you tear the enemy’s hard-bought armor to ribbons for your AD compatriots to chew through effortlessly. I will temper this praise, however, with a reminder: only AD-based damage benefits from you buying this item. If you and your ADC are the only significant sources of AD on the team (Nasus does not count as a significant source of AD, ya nerd), don’t buy it.

Tools of Success: Abilities

Passive: Martial Cadence. "Jarvan IV's first attack on his target deals 10% of the target's current health as bonus physical damage, which caps at 400 damage. This effect cannot occur on the same target for 10 / 8 / 6 seconds. The cooldown is reduced at levels 1 / 7 / 13."

Your passive does two main things for you in lane. Number one, it helps your ADC push harder by dealing more damage to minions, which lets you proc Relic Shield stacks at higher minion health. The direct lane aggression resulting fro pushing so hard is part of what makes Jarvan support into the monolithic threat he is. Second, it adds to your opening salvo of damage when you engage. Not only does this just add damage, it adds damage to the FRONT end of your offense; this makes the beginning of every fight a flurry of action from you and your ADC, resulting in startling burst damage and an enemy that is a lot more wary of the "tanky support" that just smacked the Noxus out of them with a single autoattack.

Press button, receive poke damage. Press two buttons, receive kill gold. This is perhaps the biggest weapon (heh) in Jarvan's arsenal at the extreme early levels. The attack does good damage for its range (and for a tanky support), and it SHREDS ARMOR. ADC, tanky support, squishy support, ganking jungler... doesn't matter. Just by you TOUCHING them, you and your ADC both now deal more damage. Add the hard CC from your engage combo with Demacian Standard, and you already have the damage advantage as soon as you engage. Interestingly, you want to max this skill last: the increased armor shred only fully matters at endgame (where tanks and bruisers have now piled on lots of armor to BE shredded), and you want the utility from your other two skills more in the early-game.

What's the matter? Natural scaling armor and great synergy with tanky items not enough for you? HOW BOUT A DADGUMN BUILT-IN RANDUIN'S OMEN FOR YA, PLUS A SHIELD. Once you have even two or three ranks in Golden Aegis, Jarvan starts to shrug off damage like raindrops. Bursty ADCs like Graves can drop their combos on him and barely touch his actual health bar. Even better, you rack up a higher shield the more enemy champions you "hit" with the slow wave. Even if it's just a 2v2 in botlane, your rank 5 shield has already gone from 210 to 330 negated damage. Max this ability first, not just for the extra damage shielding, but also because higher ranks crank up the percentage slow.

The "Swag Flag" is Jarvan's trademark. It gives him bonus armor and attack speed, it signals his engages to his allies, it holds an attack speed buff for his whole team when active, and it's just intimidating-looking because the enemy knows what is probably coming next. You can use it to bluff engages, repelling enemies who don't feel like getting ten metric tons of Demacia shoved down their throats today. You can pick off fleeing low-health enemies who are just out of reach of a short-range ADC like early-game Tristana. It's also your big mobility tool; with it, most walls mean nothing to you. *shakes fist at Azir* Max this ability second, since the extra armor and the attack speed buff start to matter during the midgame.

R: Cataclysm. "Jarvan IV heroically leaps to an enemy champion, dealing 200 / 325 / 450 (+1.5 per bonus attack damage) physical damage and creating a circle of impassable terrain around them for a 3.5 second duration. Jarvan IV can destroy the area by activating it again. Champions can still leave or enter the area by using teleport abilities."

Cataclysm strikes terror into the hearts of foes. If your opponents aren't actively messing their pants the moment you hit level 6 in lane, you've done something wrong and should probably play a different champion. Did the opponent juke your E > Q engage? THAT'S OKAY, YOU CAN JUST ENGAGE AGAIN. Your ADC is low and there's a Yasuo coming in for the kill? ADORABLE. Playing with a Vayne, but there's no nearby walls to get Condemn stuns? THERE ARE NOW.

Seriously, going from level 5 to level 6 turns you into the shoulders upon which gods shall ride. Cataclysm solves so many problems and creates so many opportunities that any foe who doesn't respect its presence deserves to get crater'd. Of course, the obvious Jarvan mantra still applies: don't trap dying teammates in the cage with you. This is especially true of particularly immobile ADCs like Varus or Ashe; you really can get your teammates killed a lot faster, because they haven't been packing on armor and health like you have. Put a point into Cataclysm whenever you can, since it shortens the cooldown and increases the damage.

The Hard Part: Laning With Your ADC

As Jarvan support, your goal is to get your ADC fed. Your goal is not to harass the other ADC off the wave and let yours outfarm them. Your goal is not to poke the enemy champions down so that they have to return to base more than you do. Your goal is to kill them, and then kill them again. To this end, J4 support synergizes well with ADCs that have strong early-game like Draven and Miss Fortune. In fact, those two are probably your best possible lane partners: Draven has good chasedown and high amounts of physical damage that benefit from your armor shred (and his passive has direct benefits from getting early kills), and Miss Fortune has lots of physical damage and a terrifying wombo-combo ult synergy.

Let me just reiterate that your goal is to score kills for your ADC. If that means staying hyper-aggressive and constantly engaging on the enemy to force duels, do it. If it means freezing the wave and forcing the enemy to overpush and get ganked, do it. If it means sacrificing your life to get your ADC a double or triple kill, do it. Jarvan support is a high-risk, high-reward investment. You either dominate the lane, or you doom yourself to getting poked for all of eternity. This is why aggression is so important; without it, you can’t establish any sort of dominance. The enemy should constantly feel your presence rather than just seeing it. Once you have your first kill or two, stand near the minion wave most of the time. Get your ADC to do the same, and simply engage on the enemy any time they get too close while farming. Chase them away from the wave, win the trade, and put a deep ward in the river. In the best possible scenario, arrange for a countergank when the enemy jungler inevitably shows up. If you see him coming, leave the lane completely and gun straight for him, bringing your own jungler and your ADC with you. The best the enemy botlane could hope for (if you’ve done your job well) is to push the minion wave back to your turret and score some desperately-needed farm; if they follow your group and make it a 3v3 or 4v4, kill their jungler first (or mid-laner, whichever is the highest threat and most convenient kill), then turn on them and go for more kills.

I know I’m getting repetitive with the whole “beat ‘em up real good, rawr” thing, but I’m driving the point home. You don’t want to WIN your lane; you want LANE DOMINANCE. You want everyone on the enemy team to have to put their heads together and figure out how to take you down and destroy your turret. And while they do, you can sit back, relax, and watch the rest of your team mow through objectives like butter.

Demacian Glory: The Late-Game And You

Hey look, a short section.

Late-game, you want to either join your front-line initiators during engages (if your team has another good peeler like Lissandra or Warwick) or stay back and pre-empt any threats against your carries. Keep in mind the different mentality that larger teamfights take on; if a Jax is winding up his Counterstrike to jump on your ADC, he's a lot less likely to see you try to bluff him away with Demacian Standard (and he's also less likely to care, because he's Jax). Try to trap multiple opponents in your Cataclysm; if you have a bursty carry who is fairly fed and/or a bruiser-type champion with you, this can easily mean the death of every foe stuck in there with you. Oh, and expect to die a lot during teamfights. You won't have the raw tankiness of toplane or jungle Jarvan builds because of your support items and Masteries, so make sure you're ready to die for your plays, if it means taking down the right carry or peeling off the right initiator or whatever.

Matchups

Definitely going to see some expansion in the future. I know this was the most popular part of my Lissandra guide, and why it spiked to the top so fast, so this is definitely a work in progress.

Blitzcrank: Easy. This would be an ideal matchup to pick Jarvan support. Stay in front of your ADC at all times in lane. If Blitz pulls you pre-6, you got a free engage on the enemy ADC; just make sure you don’t get knocked up mid-dash by Blitz’s E. If Blitz pulls you when you have ult ready, you definitely got a free engage on the enemy ADC. Tell your ADC to stay near, but behind, you as much as he can. Keep them on their toes with Q and the occasional E, and all-in when Blitz pulls you or when they least expect it. Don’t be afraid to Flash for a Cataclysm on an ADC, especially if their own Flash is down and you’ve got a teammate ready to take them out.

Janna: Very hard. If you see a Janna on the other side, expect laning phase to be hell. You’re dependent on early aggression, and Janna is currently the reigning champion at unzipping all nearby trousers and taking a big windy dump on that notion. Bush control at all times is key to holding your own; if you don’t have enough for a Sightstone on first back, buy wards and keep the bushes under your control as much as you can. It’s the only way you can capitalize on the enemy ADC being out of position with any sort of confidence.

Leona: Medium. Near-demented aggression is the key to winning the lane. You want to see a solid advantage before Leona hits level 3, where she starts to become an issue. Push as hard as you can to reach level 2 before your lane opponents, take Q and E, and all-in them. Kill them or force them back, keeping Leona behind as much as you can. If you see this advantage begin to from, zone them away from farm and get your ADC to freeze the lane. Lane-freezing is counterintuitive as an ADC, seemingly, but it results in a forced enemy push without the benefit of gold or EXP, which is rage-inducing for even the msot level-headed ADCs. During engages, though Leona's CC poses a threat, it poses much less of a threat when her ADC is dead on the floor; ignore her until you have Varus/Twitch/Draven/etc.'s head on the end of your spear, then turn around and smack her in the forehead.

Sona: Hard. Laning against Sona is a bummer, but not a lost game; don’t let her poke you down, since you don’t have lifesteal to heal back up like your ADC does, and all-in her when she tries for a Q+Power Chord. The biggest thing you want to capitalize on is her fragility, especially if paired with a beefier ADC like Graves. Though it sounds counterproductive, it’s usually actually better to take her out first and keep the enemy ADC zoned off the creep wave. Keeping her low on items and EXP limits her lane sustain, which in turn limits the enemy ADC’s options while in lane. In a perfect world, you would kill Sona twice or both laners once before the lane generally reaches level 6; after that, the threat of an imminent Crescendo makes everything ten times harder. Once she hits level 6, your best bet is to try not to line up with your ADC and let her stun you both simultaneously.

Soraka: Very easy. On paper, Soraka has the advantage. She has a silence/root that stops you from using your abilities to engage, decent combined poke and sustain with Q, and a spike heal at level 6 that is infamous for the number of lives it has saved. But when you get to lane, you can literally just forget all that. You’re Jarvan IV, Prince of Demacia. If she drops her silence on you, walk breezily out of it and jump down her throat. If you read an incoming Starfall correctly, punish the casting animation and jump down her throat. If she burns her ult to heal an ally locked in Cataclysm, that doesn’t get them out of Cataclysm; that just means it takes a little longer before they die. From you jumping down their throat.

Taric: Medium-easy. Taric players like to stick close to their ADCs most of the time, his heal eats up his mana pool rather quickly, and he doesn’t have much offensive weight in early fights once he’s used his two offensive abilities. Bait an engage, eat the stun, then go elbows-deep on the enemy ADC. You can most likely 1v1 Taric if it comes down to it, unless they have a sizable gold lead over you, so don’t be afraid to ignore him during engages.

Thresh: Very hard. Thresh has a less risky style of aggression than you do, and he can poke you with hard-hitting AAs with relative impunity. Flay can stop your engages in their tracks, his ult can gimp an entire engaging team (you included), and no matter how much CC you have, you just won’t have the damage to 100-0 that Caitlyn before she can grab the lantern. All in all, Thresh is a serious pain to take on. Try to bluff your levels of aggression in lane by camping your bush a la Blitzcrank. Try to keep it from getting warded, and all-in at level 2 if possible, either pushing the opponents out of the lane or securing a kill. Stay just as aggressive until you have ult; by that point, you want to have enough of a lead to be able to dive the enemy turret if necessary. Sweep the enemy’s jungle entrance for wards, call your own jungler and/or mid-laner down, and focus global effort on winning your lane.

Vayne: Very hard. Vayne/Thresh gets special mention as the one and only lane guaranteed to stuff your head up your own tushie, every time. Your only real strength in this matchup is that Vayne can't use Tumble to escape your Cataclysm, but even then she can just Condemn you into your own wall and either shoot you full of holes or Flash over the wall. I'd go as far as to say that you should make absolutely sure you aren't laning against a Vayne before picking Jarvan support.

Conclusion

This guide is still a work in progress as far as I'm concerned. The big thing I'll be working on is that tasty, tasty matchups section, as well as adding moar pretty pictures. I may even get off my lazy tushy and learn some basic HTML to really make this guide and my Lissandra guide look prettier. Hopefully, after reading this big ol' bunch of info up above, you're at least willing to give Jarvan support a try. I think it's fantastic, or I wouldn't have made the guide. Happy QQ, summoners!

P.S. I know this guide came out later than I thought it would, but real life happens at a frightening pace. The Cassiopeia guide is still in progress, and I dunno when it'll be done, but I haven't given up on it quite yet. I also expect to put out a support Fiddlesticks guide at some point before too much time goes by, and that might even take priority over Cassiopeia since I know the champion better. Anyways, running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign every week like clockwork is about to put a damper on the time I spend on these guides, so don't hold your breath on another one coming up tomorrow. :C